Venice masks

Monday 31 March 2014

Liber V.LIX (In sending you no silver plate) - Marcus Valerius Martialis

In sending you no silver plate, no gold plate,
I act in your interest, eloquent Stella.

Sunday 30 March 2014

Ah, When He Is Mine - Novalis

Ah, when He is mine,
When I hold Him fast,
When His loyalty divine
Fills my heart unto the last—
I feel no distress,
Only worship, love and happiness.

Saturday 29 March 2014

Silence is always here - Jaan Kaplinski

Silence is always here and everywhere;
sometimes we simply hear it more clearly:

Friday 28 March 2014

Understand Old One - Oodgeroo Noonuccal

What if you came back now
To our new world, the city roaring

Thursday 27 March 2014

The Indian Corn Planter - E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake)

He needs must leave the trapping and the chase,
  For mating game his arrows ne'er despoil,
And from the hunter's heaven turn his face,
  To wring some promise from the dormant soil.

Wednesday 26 March 2014

The Blind and the Lame - Christian Fürchtegott Gellert

It happens that a man quite blind
A lame man on the street doth find.
With hope the blind man’s heart is gay:
There’s one to lead him on his way!

Tuesday 25 March 2014

Idyl - Pedro Requena Legarreta

The opal-breasted morning of the spring
Scarce o'er the meads her luminous urn can swing.

Monday 24 March 2014

To The Night - Ugo Foscolo

Maybe because you always have appeared
The image of that fatal rest to me,
O night! You come towards me so dear!
Escorted by the summer clouds with glee
And by the gentle breezes full of cheer,

Sunday 23 March 2014

My Lady - Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

My lady, I must implore
forgiveness for keeping still,
if what I meant as tribute
ran contrary to your will.

Saturday 22 March 2014

A Drover - Padraic Colum

To Meath of the pastures,
From wet hills by the sea,
Through Leitrim and Longford
Go my cattle and me.

Friday 21 March 2014

Brothers, let us glorify freedom’s twilight - Osip Emilevich Mandelstam

Brothers, let us glorify freedom’s twilight –
the great, darkening year.
Into the seething waters of the night
heavy forests of nets disappear.
O Sun, judge, people, your light
is rising over sombre years

Wednesday 19 March 2014

A Mountain Song - Kazi Nazrul Islam

We are wild as the storm
We are restless as the spring
We are fearless like god and generous like nature.

Tuesday 18 March 2014

A Year of Grace - Monique Mbeka

I’m getting a year of grace
from my year of pain and rage,
my year of famine —
a year to study film
production in Kinshasa
and finally come of age.

Monday 17 March 2014

Munster - Sliabh Cuilinn

Ye who rather
Seek to gather
Biding thought than fleeting pleasure,
In the South what wonders saw ye?
From the South what lesson draw ye?
Wonders, passing thought or measure, —
Lessons, through a life to treasure.

Sunday 16 March 2014

Ísland - Jónas Hallgrímsson

Iceland, fortunate isle! Our beautiful, bountiful mother!
Where are your fortune and fame, freedom and virtue of old?

Saturday 8 March 2014

Chanson D’Automne - Paul Verlaine

Leaf-strewing gales
Utter low wails
     Like violins,—
Till on my soul
Their creeping dole
     Stealthily wins….

Thursday 6 March 2014

Oh, Summer! - Brishti Bandyopadhyay

Summer can be killing
but it can also be fun
the trick is to stay cool
despite the hot, hot sun.

Wednesday 5 March 2014

Rising at Morning from My Graveside - Maxim Amelin

Rising at morning from my graveside,
I rub these eyelids till they're lucid,
and then, squinting windward,
I set off—unsure where I'm directed—

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Castel-Cuille - Jacques Jasmin

At the foot of the mountain height
Where is perched Castel-Cuille,
When the apple, the plum, and the almond tree
In the plain below were growing white.
This is the song one might perceive
On a Wednesday morn of Saint Joseph's Eve:

Monday 3 March 2014

Would I were As Free As My Dreams - August Graf von Platen

Would I were free as are my dreams,
  Sequestered from the garish crowd
To glide by banks of quiet streams
  Cooled by the shadow-drifting cloud!

Sunday 2 March 2014

Things as Beautiful - Lao Tzu

When people see some things as beautiful,
other things become ugly.
When people see some things as good,
other things become bad.

Saturday 1 March 2014

In An Album - Cyprian Kamil Norwid

If instead of windows so amply
Frozen to precious stones we had
A few statues against azure skies,
Or a columned peristyle for reveries…
If only Sorrento sunlight
Would slither through laurel leaves…
Ah well! ... here all is veiled in mists...